Some More Stories For Your Enjoyment

Finally, the weather changed and it got a bit cooler outside.

I am not going to talk a lot about it because I'm stating the obvious. However, in looking at the forecasts, I can see the temperatures rising again over the next week or so. It really should not be all that much of a surprise because we are at the end of July and the beginning of August when temperatures are quite warm.

Let me just write about a couple of stories that I have seen recently that I hope you'll find of interest.

GROCERY CHAINS

I am going to be writing a story that you might consider to be a bit different than normal. I am just experiencing some things which seem to be odd to me but I'm not sure that I can "prove" it. Let me explain.

As I am certain that you know from what I have written before, dear reader, I like going grocery shopping. I have a favorite store that I go to once a week. Quite quite often I go to a different branded store in another chain to buy a few extra products because we are starting to run out of them towards the middle of a week.

Let me be a little bit more direct so you will understand better what I mean. My family does a lot of our weekly shopping at Real Canadian Superstore because it has great products at terrific prices. It is a bit of a drive to get there from where we live but we do it once a week. If we start running out of food, rather than drive all the way back to RCSS, we drive to a Zehrs store very close to where we live where we do our purchasing.

Of course, when we shop, my wife and I have a lot of fun. Importantly however, we make sure that we can pay as low a price as we possibly can by purchasing products that are on sale at the low price. Fortunately, RCSS (and a few other grocery stores) allow us to use the advertisements of other grocery stores so that we can use the lower price of products that they are offering to their customers.

Let me give you an example. Assume that the normal price for the product that RCSS is offering to its customers when we are shopping there is $1.75 for it. However, in this week, one of its competitive grocery stores is advertising that product for sale at $1.25 or a savings of $.50. As long as we can show that store's advertisement, then we also can buy that product at the $1.25 price at RCSS.

As you can tell, this is a nice way we can save money since we are able to go to our favourite grocery store and yet, can buy all of the products that we want that their competitors are offering at the lower price. To be direct, we can save a lot of money by using all of these savings from so many stores at RCSS while still getting the discounts that they offer at their store and can take advantage of their lower prices.

However, dear reader, things seem to be different now. Oh sure, we still go through our grocery store in detail looking for bargains. We are usually holding those coupons from other stores which we think get us a better price in our shopping place and are happy when we find the product. The problem though is we don't see very many products on sale anymore. By that, I mean not only in our grocery store but also in the other stores in town as well whose ads we are holding.

Take a look at the recent advertisements from many grocery chains in your newspaper or which was delivered to you or which you can see online. There are a lot of pictures of items that are being offered to customers. The problem is the pricing is generally not discounted at all but is the usual product price. The number of products in the advertisements that are on sale is much lower it seems to me compared with products on sale previously.

Obviously, this means that the stores are not passing on as much money to customers as before on the sales that they are advertising but are keeping more of the funds for themselves. Is there a reason for this? Perhaps it is just so that each of the grocery chains can make a lot more money by not creating as many discount coupons as before.

However, I suspect that there must be another reason for it. What is that reason is not certain to me but I suspect it is to create money for these companies for some purposes that could cost them dearly in the future. They must want to get as much money as possible today for any reason that they need it in the future. What I find fascinating is that it seems that a number of these competing store brands seem to be following this tactic today and at the same time as their competitors.

One day I expect that we will learn the reason.

EMBARRASSING FOR THIS MUNICIPAL ELECTION CANDIDATE

Poor Jim Morrison the Municipal Candidate who is running for Councillor in Windsor in Ward 10. Is his campaign in trouble now based on something that just happened? I must admit that I found it strange that a second story came out about this matter because it seemed to me to be all over in the first story written.

I have written about him a few days ago about the news story that involved him: “ATTACKING A COUNCILLOR.” Actually, I spoke more about his office manager, Paul Synnott, in that story. Just go and take a look at it so you will understand what I mean. Now, what happened before is being publicized again.

Just go and take a look at this new story, especially the first paragraph:

“City officials not looking into alleged campaign violations

The City of Windsor is not looking into allegations that Coun. Paul Borrelli violated municipal policy by promoting recent accomplishments in Ward 10 just before an election.” (Craig Pearson, Windsor Star, July 19, 2018)

There was a lot of publicity expressed in that previous story but the City is doing nothing about it. So far anyway. Now here is what is being said by Morrison's office manager. It is similar to what he stated before:

“Synnott said he did not file a complaint with [integrity commissioner Bruce] Elman.

“I don’t want to waste a lot of time and money on this,” Synnott said. “Ultimately, I just wanted to bring it to the fore.”

After reading this new story several times, I have to admit that I still do not understand why it had to be written at all. There really wasn't anything all that new that was added to it compared with the first story. Well, I should not say that exactly because here is what Mr. Synnott said about the only matter that was of significance;

"He takes issue only with Borrelli mentioning the ward funds he used for new bus shelters, since Synnott claims Borrelli didn’t tout that accomplishment when it was approved in April.

Instead, Synnott said it was only after his candidate Jim Morrison announced June 29 he was running in Ward 10 that Borrelli publicly promote his bus shelter work.”

I wonder now if anything will happen with Mr. Borrelli since he is running for re-election. We will just have to wait and see.

More Blogmeister Stories

It is quite enjoyable for me to be a Blogmeister. It is a lot of fun for me to sit in front of my computer and dictate a story that will appear in front of you, dear reader. I have some software that makes it so much easier for me to produce articles by dictating rather than sitting here and typing.

One of the unfortunate parts of this is that my software is much older and I have not upgraded it because the cost of doing so is quite expensive. However, there is no real reason for me to do so in any event. My use of the particular software that I am using is rather basic with no real need for me to have all the features that new software offers. Why would I go out and spend so much money upgrading to the newer versions when there is no real need for me to do so?

Regretfully, it becomes much more difficult to use my old software on the newer computers with all of their features. There will come the time I am sure when it will be almost impossible for me to use my software on the newer computer. Oh well, I will look for alternative software then to use and hope that I can find something comparable. In addition, I hope I can find "freeware" so that I do not have to spend a lot of money buying the newer software.

Now let me tell you about some matters that have interested me recently.

UNEMPLOYMENT

Perhaps you have learned a lesson. One can do all kinds of things with numbers, especially to make one look superior and to have accomplished wonderful results. Just take a look at this lovely unemployment number in our area and the way it was described:

"There was drop in the local unemployment rate in June.

It came in at 5.8%, compared to 6.0 in May…" (Windsorite.ca, July6, 2018) 

Not bad right? True until one reads the rest of the sentence:

“...5.5% in April, 5.2% in March, 4.9% in February and 4.6% in January.”

However, there's something a little bit more interesting that you ought to know about. Here is another jobs statistic that I just saw that should be quite troubling to you:

"The unemployment rate in Windsor dipped slightly last month, but so too did the labour participation rate.

Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey says the jobless rate in June was down 0.1% from May to 5.8%.

However, the labour participation rate suggests the city had the lowest rate of labour participation or people who are employed, in the country. It fell 0.8% from May to 59.8% in June. The rate has hovered at, or just above 60% since January.” (Adelle Loiselle, Blackburn News, July 6, 2018) 

In other words, dear reader, we still have a lot of problems in our area with respect to employment.

I find it very interesting that, for some reason, I have not seen these statistics before publicized anywhere. Maybe I missed them. However, they certainly would not help politicians, especially in an election year, getting re-elected if we see every month that our employment situation is still so terrible.

Election day is coming up very shortly. Now is the perfect time to start asking politicians what they are going to do to increase the number of jobs in this area. Their answer better be a good one if they want to have a seat in a City Hall chair in one of the municipalities in our region.

Make sure, dear reader, that your questions and demands for answer are the toughest on people who are seeking re-election since it seems that some of the numbers as disclosed above are not very positive. Why then should they come back into office unless they give you a very good response to your concerns.

MALL VACANCIES

I just saw this in Wikipedia in the “Shopping Mall” section which may explain why we are not seeing a lot of closings down here in them unlike what is happening in the US these days:

“In parts of Canada, it is now rare for new shopping malls to be built. The Vaughan Mills Shopping Centre, opened in 2004, Crossiron Mills, opened in 2009, and Tsawwassen Mills Mall in 2016, are the only malls built in Canada since 1992... the traditional enclosed shopping mall is still in demand by those seeking weather-protected, all-under-one-roof shopping.”

I have to admit that I don't understand why people don't like going to shopping malls if they want to buy something. Apparently the big alternative these days is that people are buying products over the Internet. Here are some numbers in the US that I found very interesting:

"Malls are the emptiest they’ve been since 2012, when the U.S. economy was still struggling to recover from the last recession.

The vacancy rate reached 8.6% in the second quarter, up from 8.4% in the first quarter, as more consumers shifted their shopping online, according to data from real-estate research firm Reis Inc. REIS 1.35% The highest postrecession vacancy was in the third quarter of 2011, when it hit 9.4%, Reis said.

The shopping slowdown is being felt in all types of brick-and-mortar retail outlets throughout the country. Vacancies in open-air shopping centers, for example, increased during the last quarter in 55 of the 77 metropolitan areas studied by Reis.

The impact is especially severe among strip malls and other neighborhood  and community shopping centers, which suffered their worst quarter in nine years.” (Ester Fung, Wall Street Journal, July 2, 2018) 

It appears as if we have suffered a bit in our area as well but perhaps not enough to force a close-down. Take a look at what is happening in Tecumseh Mall that hopefully will make things look better for that plaza after so many years of emptiness:

“Tecumseh Mall filling up big vacancies left by departed anchors Sobeys, Zellers

“We’ll have a new tenant in the new year,” Tecumseh Mall general manager Colleen Conlin said Thursday.

The welcome news for east-end shoppers is part of a revitalization for the mall and the area around Tecumseh Road East and Lauzon..

The closure of Zellers in 2013 and Sobeys in 2014 left two large anchor locations empty at Tecumseh Mall.” (Sharon Hill , Windsor Star, July 5, 2018) 

As for Devonshire Mall, it has had problems as well especially now after the closing down of Sears. Importantly, they have had to act in a very positive fashion even before they became aware of the financial difficulties of Sears. Here is the big reason why which was announced in August, 2016 in one of their Media Releases:

“Devonshire Mall announced today a $70M redevelopment and renovation program. This exciting program will bring new shopping and dining options for Windsor consumers and will modernize the interior of the shopping mall with a bright and open new experience.

This will be the largest and most comprehensive renovation of Devonshire Mall in the last 20 years.”

As you know, the restaurants area in the Plaza was just recently opened. The rest should be opened relatively soon I expect. Let us see how it all does and whether it will still make money and remain open.

Quite A Shock

It was just an unbelievable story that I saw when I went on the Internet on Sunday morning:

“Fiat Chrysler Abruptly Replaces Marchionne as C.E.O.

Sergio Marchionne, the chain-smoking, deal-making boss of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, was an unlikely auto executive, spending much of his career in other industries. But in the last 14 years, he helped bring back two car-makers from the brink of collapse.

On Saturday, Mr. Marchionne, 66, was abruptly replaced. Fiat Chrysler revealed that he had become gravely ill since having shoulder surgery on July 5. The company named Mike Manley, 54, who is the head of the automaker’s North America operations and its Jeep and Ram truck brands, as Mr. Marchionne’s successor, effective immediately.

Fiat Chrysler declined to provide details about Mr. Marchionne’s health, but it made clear his condition had worsened significantly and suddenly.” (Neal E. Boudette, New York Times, July 21, 2018) 

Here is what was stated by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles on their website setting out what was taking place:  

"FCA Announcement   

With reference to the health of Sergio Marchionne, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (“FCA”) (NYSE: FCAU / MTA: FCA) communicates with profound sorrow that during the course of this week unexpected complications arose while Mr. Marchionne was recovering from surgery and that these have worsened significantly in recent hours.   As a consequence, Mr. Marchionne will be unable to return to work.

The Board of Directors of FCA, meeting today, firstly expressed its closeness to Sergio Marchionne and his family and underlined the extraordinary contribution, both human and professional, that he has made to the Company in these years.   The Board resolved to accelerate the CEO transition process that has been proceeding over the past months and named Mike Manley as CEO. The Board will therefore propose to the next Shareholder Meeting, to be called in the coming days, that he be elected to the Board and serve as an executive director of the Company. 

In the meantime, in order to provide for his full authority and operational continuity for the company, the Board has with immediate effect granted Mr. Manley all the powers of CEO. He will also assume responsibility for the NAFTA region.   Mr. Manley and his management team will proceed with the implementation of the 2018 – 2022 Business Plan as presented on 1 June this year, a plan that will further assure FCA’s strong and independent future."

One truly has to wonder whether this situation is even worse than revealed so far. Is Mr. Marchionne really so extremely sick now so that his life expectancy is very limited?

His career has been extremely interesting considering the Company for which he has been working for so many years. He has prevented it from going broke but it is still in financial difficulty. No wonder stories came out even recently about his desire to partner with others.

From a personal perspective, I can only hope that he survives the attack which he is fighting right now.

A Very Hot Summer

I know that we have experienced very warm weather in past summers. However, have I ever been shocked by the very hot weather that we are having this year!

I am surprised by how many hot days we have had over the last little while matched by hardly any rain at all. In addition, the humidex increase in temperature makes it all even worse. I never expected it. In fact, I did not believe we would have any hot weather here at all until much later than normal. After all, don't you remember, our past winter started so much later than usual because of the elongated autumn season. Therefore, I expected that the summer season would really not start at its "normal" time but would delay the heat until sometime late in July.

Was I ever wrong on that! It seems that we hardly had any spring here at all and jumped immediately to record-breaking hot temperatures. And also an air advisory:

“Today will be hot, hazy and humid with light winds due to a stagnant weather pattern.

Possible high levels of air pollution are expected today. A SMOG AND AIR HEALTH ADVISORY is in place due to the possibility of deteriorating air quality.”

Since it is still too difficult for me to go outside exercising these days, I may as well sit down in front of my computer and do some stories for you to read, dear reader.

ATTACKING A COUNCILLOR

It is amazing. Quite a story on July 13, 2018 in the Windsor Star written by Brian Cross.  I must admit that I do not recall reading such a story in the past.

The title should tell you how big the story is:

“Borrelli accused of violating election rules by opponent's campaign manager”

There are all kinds of allegations made publicly about what the Councillor did that may be a breach of some of the rules respecting running for office. The Star story set out in some detail what the concerns were as alleged by Paul Synnott. Naturally, this should be something quite important for residents in that Riding to examine before the election.

I have to admit that I was quite shocked by what the office manager of candidate, Jim Morrison, had to say. Mind you, I was surprised that the negative language came out of the mouth of his office manager rather than from the candidate himself. I must tell you that I did not understand why it was done that way if it was that important a matter.

Of course, Councillor Paul Borrelli was quoted in the article and he denied making the breaches alleged:

“Borrelli insisted on Friday he broke no rules, because he filed the paperwork for committing the funds prior to April 22 and because he hasn’t registered as a candidate.”

I have to admit that I wondered which person would ultimately make the decision on this matter and what that person's decision would be. I assumed that it could prevent someone from running for office if that person committed the improper act. Given the arguments made by both sides, it could be a very precedent-setting hearing that could affect people across the entire Province.

Except, nothing like this was going to happen after all. Here is what was written in the last paragraphs of the news article:

“While violating the Municipal Elections Act has some serious potential penalties, including forfeiting office or being banned from running for office in the future, there are no penalties mentioned in the Ward Funds Policy. One possible recourse is to make a complaint to the city’s Integrity Commissioner, Synnott said.

“But I don’t want to gum up the works and make a complaint to the Integrity Commissioner and have $8,000 spent investigating something that’s pretty obvious,” Synnott said. “I just want it to stop.”

Sigh, I just did not understand it. What was the purpose of having such a news story written that sets out alleged complaints and provides defence comments if nothing was ever going to happen to decide who was right. It just seems a strange course to me.

IS THIS WHY FRED DID NOT RUN FOR MAYOR

I saw the news article recently that explained why I was so surprised when I saw that Fred Francis was not going to run for Mayor.

I certainly assumed for the longest possible time that he was going through exactly what his brother did when he was on Council. Eddie Francis put in his name to run for Mayor after his first term on Council and won. I expected the same thing to happen this year but for some reason it did not. All that Fred said he was going to do was run again for Council.

I really have no explanation why this happened. It could be that the expectation was that it might now be a three-person race for the position of Mayor with the other candidates being the existing Mayor and his main opponent to date Matt Marchand. That might have meant that Fred could have a lower chance of winning. All the votes would have to be shared and therefore there was a smaller chance that Fred could get the most votes to win. That would mean that no Francis would be on Council any longer.

I must admit that what I read in that story about what Fred accomplished as Councillor seemed quite impressive. It did surprise me though because I do not remember reading a lot about these projects and his role in them. That is probably because I am now living in Tecumseh.

Let us see what happens on election night and whether Fred remains on Council for four more years.

A Delicious Meal

A wonderful meal to eat.  The recipe is provided by my daughter-chef Melissa.  

Take a look at her website for all kinds of stories, not just recipes.  Here is the connection for this posting

https://blissfulmuse07.blogspot.com/2018/07/how-to-keep-magician-fed-for-days.html?spref=fb 

How To Keep A Magician Fed For Days

Although magicians don’t always share secrets with their audience, I’m going to let you in on a recipe for Shepherd’s Pie that you’ll want to tell everyone about!

We lead busy lives and if you’re a professional magician, the last thing you want is to fumble while dazzling your audience with a card trick or feeling fuzzy-minded performing a spectacular illusion. It takes passion for the craft, skill and countless hours of practice to perfect the art of magic. Trust me, I know, as I have been with my magical man for almost a decade now.

Creating balanced meals that will fuel your body is important and so this is the version I do. It’s healthy, fairly simple to make and lasts for several days in the fridge. Of course, you can tweak it to meet your culinary tastes and dietary requirements.

INGREDIENTS:

---4-5 medium potatoes, peeled or unpeeled (whatever you like) and then quartered with a knife. 

---2 cups (or more!) of assorted vegetables—I use a standard frozen vegetable mix often, as it’s more cost effective. You can use fresh veggies, but you will need to saute those separately in another pan.

---1 1/2 lbs of ground beef, pork, turkey, veal, or chicken. Whatever is on sale, that’s the meat of choice for this dish. *Vegetarians/Vegans – you can of course use veggie/vegan meat replacement and just follow the instructions as you normally would to cook it.

---Seasonings of choice. Ex. oregano, basil, garlic, curry, turmeric, chives, parsley, sage, etc...

WHAT TO DO:

1 Boil the potatoes: Place washed, peeled (or unpeeled, if you like the skin on) and quartered potatoes in a large pot and cover with enough water. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cook until tender (about 20 minutes). Use a timer.

2. In a frying pan, add your meat of choice and cook it up (you don’t want to see ANY pink my non-veggie friends!) Make sure to add whatever sauce and seasonings you want.

3. Revisit your mash potatoes. Use a fork to pierce for tenderness. You want them nice and soft so they will be easy to mash. When the potatoes are done cooking, remove them from the pot, drain the water, and place them into a bowl. Add butter or margarine, any seasonings of choice, and then mash away with a fork or potato masher until they are the consistency you want. Set aside.

4. Preheat your oven to 400°F. Wait for that oven beeeeeeeeep!

5. Get out a large baking casserole dish (approx 8 x13), and pour the meat mixture on the bottom. Add a heaping amount of frozen veggies or your mixture of sauteed vegetables. Then spread the mashed potatoes evenly on top. *Feel free to grate your favourite cheese or cheese alternative, if you’re looking for a richer cheesy potato flavour once it finishes cooking.

6. Bake in the oven and cook for approximately 30 minutes. I like to set my oven to broil for the last few minutes to get the potatoes a little extra brown.

7. Take out the dish WITH oven mitts and let cool down for a couple minutes. Cut into pieces and serve!

What Should I Say Now

It is not always that easy to write a Blog. It does take a lot of time for me to do so.

That may surprise you. After all, when doing Blogs for the site I worked on before, I was able to produce quite a few of them. If you remember, on some occasions, I used to do several per day. Now, it just is much more difficult for me to be able to write one as frequently.

The reason should be fairly obvious. This Blogsite where I am writing now is completely personal, for my purposes only. I just write when I have the feeling to do so. In addition, one of my desires is to refer you to articles written by my daughter, Melissa, who writes such good stories on so many different features on her own website. She deserves whatever attention I can give her because of the excellent work she does.

What I try to do now is to write something personal at the beginning of each Blog, just as I am doing now, and then deal with other matters that are interesting to me which I have found. On some occasions, I give you my opinion in the story about what my article is about while on others I just want you to know about events that are going on.

I am glad that a number of people read my new website every time I produce a new article. I do try and publicize it a little bit by publicizing it on Facebook but I do not do much more than that. Writing an article is something that I do to keep my "brain" working and, of course, hoping to get people to agree with what I am saying.

Of course, sometimes what I write about at the beginning takes up a lot of space while in other cases, I write about a lot less. After this personal writing, I then tell my dear readers, as I am doing now, that I want them to read the other matters for which I have produced in the rest of the Blogspace. Read on!

MAYORAL ELECTION IN WINDSOR

Just over a week from now, July 27, 2018, nominations will close for those who want to run for candidacy for a Windsor Council office. Interestingly, a few days ago I went to the City of Windsor website to see who is running for Council now. What a surprise I had! There were 4 seats out of the 10 where no one was running yet. Absolutely no one. Now it is changing as Councillors finally start to join up now to be re-elected..

I have to admit that I could not believe it. Until very recently, I only saw one Councillor's name who was running for re-election. That was John Elliott in Ward 2. Neither the Mayor nor the other Councillors had filed their nomination papers at that time. Will they all be running? As I said above, some have just put in their papers.

What is going on now? There is an obvious answer. Why put up your name early on since most people are not interested in the election at this time because of the summer holidays. Wait until the last minute to do so and then just don't start getting serious about running until after Labour Day when the summer holidays are over and people are returning back to their normal life.

Let me talk about one matter respecting the Windsor election: who might be running for Mayor. Up until very recently, I do not believe that a candidate whom anyone expected could be elected was running

The existing Mayor, Drew Dilkens, gets all the publicity he needs these days because he is the Mayor. Reporters will come and do a story on him whenever he calls them. As long as the stories are good, he gets great publicity and, at no cost. Accordingly, there is no need for him to file until the very last minute.

Yet, the question that needs to be asked is whether he'll be running for Mayor at all. Perhaps he has something else lined up now, whatever that may be, but for some reason does not want to mention it for as long as he can. All that he would need to say, in the last possible minute of course, is that he is not running. Waiting that long may mean that opponents just assumed that he would and did not prepare to run for Mayor. Starting at the end of July would not be good for someone who needed to get lots of publicity in the City of Windsor. It just might be too late.

Until now, I assume that everyone believed, as I did, that Fred Francis, Ward 2 Councillor, would run for Mayor just like his brother did. In other words, running for the Mayoral position after only one term as Councillor. Why not? I can only imagine who would be providing him with lots of election assistance based on his own experience in successfully running for that position.

However, he just announced that he is running for Council. I was considerably surprised by that.

Obviously, I thought that Fred would not have to spend a lot of money gaining publicity for himself because that is already out there now. No, he would just need to spend money using attention gathering techniques to gain more positive popularity for himself. That could be done in all kinds of "publicity" events which would make it an easy way for him to campaign. Naturally, if many of the media are in support of him, then one could expect a lot of excellent coverage for his running for office.

I have no idea why the decision was made for Fred to run for Council only now. Perhaps with Matt Marchand running for Mayor and probably the existing Mayor running as well it was concluded that Fred did not have a good chance to win. I think that it was important that he remain on Council so therefore the decision was made that he just seek re-election for his position.

Let's just see what happens and who else decides to be a mayoral candidate in Windsor. Moreover, it should be fascinating to see who's going to run for Council.

HOUSE PRICES IN OUR AREA

I trust that everyone understands that our house prices in this area, no matter how high they seem to get, will generally be behind the price for almost every other city in the Province of Ontario.

Oh I understand that the house pricing here has gone up very high but I also know that the price in these other cities are even higher for a comparable unit.

Just to give you an idea of what I mean, when I moved down here, to Windsor from Toronto, I sold my house in Toronto at a very nice, higher price compared with my original purchase price for that unit. When I bought my new residence in Windsor, its house square footage size was larger and I think that the land size was about twice the size of my Toronto property. Interestingly though, my sales price in Toronto was several times higher than my purchase price in Windsor.

It is the same thing today. Sure, my former Windsor house and the place I'm living in today in Tecumseh have risen very nicely in the last little while. However, my house in Toronto has probably risen so much higher now that I probably would have great difficulty in being able to buy.

Let me just give you an idea of what I mean. Here is a story about London, Ontario. It is useful because it also explains why the prices have increased there::

“The rising price of London homes is outpacing the national trend, a new survey says, as migrating Toronto-area home buyers and limited supply drive up prices.

The median London home price rose nine per cent year over year to $365,686 in the second quarter of 2018, according to the Royal LePage house price survey and market forecast released Tuesday. The median is the midway point between the lowest and highest prices; it is not the average.

The city is among others in Southern Ontario – such as Windsor, Niagara, St. Catharines and Kitchener-Waterloo – that experienced double- and high-single-digit increases compared to the second quarter of 2017.” (London Free Press staff, July 10, 2018) 

Did you know this about Windsor, Ontario? Now you will. It is quite exciting:

“Windsor-area housing prices are skyrocketing, with the local market near the top nationally in year-over-year price appreciation, according to a new survey.

Locally, the standard two-storey, single-family house sold for 20.4 per cent more in the second quarter of 2018 compared to the same period a year ago, according to the latest Royal LePage House Price Survey...

The median Windsor home price rose from $203,885 in the second quarter of 2017 to $245,418 in the same quarter this year. Another reason for escalating real estate prices is the lack of listings, according to the Royal LePage house price survey and market forecast released Tuesday.” (Doug Schmidt, Windsor Star, July 10, 2018) 

While the Windsor price is quite attractive for local owners, just make sure that you understand that a comparable housing London is worth over hundred thousand dollars more.

Here is some additional information that puts this into an even more interesting position when comparing other prices:

“Outside super-heated Vancouver and Toronto, the average Canadian home last month sold for about $440,000, while the same residence in Windsor would be in the $280,000 range”

I Just Continue To Write

I have to admit that I really like doing it. It still is a lot of fun for me to sit down in front of my computer and write stories about issues that interest me. I also do it as well, given my medical concerns, to make sure that I keep up my intelligence after the horrific illness that I suffered. I do it physically with all the exercise that I do so I need to do so mentally as well.

My writing style is different these days than it was before. I just try to let you know what my position is on "public" matters rather than getting into big debates about it. I also feel the need to let you know more about what my personal issues are and how I deal with them. I am not doing it just for my own desire to gain lots of publicity but rather to let people know who are getting older and/or are having some physical or mental difficulties what they can do in looking after themselves to get somewhat better. That is why I write so much personal material as the introduction in the material that I publish.

It may seem strange to you about why I report about so many issues where I have a problem. I do not do it just because I want to reveal something negative. Rather, I do so because I expect that a number of others may have similar difficulties and I want to provide them with a way of dealing with their concerns. Again, it is important for people to learn how easy it really is for solutions to be arrived at in a very positive way if one deals with the issues properly with the party on the other side.

Just to let you know again what my views are on this matter, my position is quite simple. One must first understand what one's problem is in the first place, how it happened, who may be responsible for it and then come up with a solution that makes sense. Only at that time should one contact the party on the other side to deal with it.

Of course, one must understand that organizations on the other side have different levels of people with whom you should speak. Hopefully, you are able to solve your problem relatively quickly and easily with the person on the first level of Corporate Support on the other side with whom you speak first. Unfortunately though, that always does not happen. Rather than getting into huge arguments with that person, one must learn that one must immediately seek the involvement of the more senior employee on the other side.

One must absolutely insist on it and demand that it happens right away. Based on my own experience, I have found that this more senior person has the ability to resolve an issue in a much different way than the first level employee is allowed to do so. You will also find generally that they are easier to deal with and can be more pleasant in your conversation if you act properly as well. Also, I have found that my problem is usually solved with this person who has a greater responsibility in settling matters.

Naturally, if it reaches this level, I demand a better result than even the first level employee could offer me. My attitude is not really just to get "more" as my reward from the more senior employee for being so successful. Rather, it is to teach the company involved to teach their first level employees how to deal with their customers in a better fashion. The company needs to give the first level employee better options to solve a problem to make the customer happy quickly rather than to promote unpleasantness.

Now here are some stories that I hope you will find interesting.

TECUMSEH DOES WELL AGAIN

It just should make one feel good if that person lives in the East End of Windsor or in the suburbs in the eastern section of the metropolitan area:

“We have been waiting anxiously to announce the satellite location of HDGH’s cardiac wellness program to the community,” said Dani Probert. “To extend the current services offered into the east-end community has been one of our ambitious fundraising goals for a few years now...”

“The expansion of these much-needed cardiac services into the east-end will allow those residents to complete the 6-month program closer to home,” said Bill Marra, HDGH VP of External Affairs and Executive Director of The Changing Lives Together Foundation.” (Kevin McQuaid Jr, Windsorite.ca., June 24, 2018) 

It will be located as an "expansion of the Tecumseh Arena.”

Congratulations on what has been achieved!

WHERE WILL THE NEW WINDSOR LIBRARY BE LOCATED

What a strange action this is.

One would have thought that the City of Windsor would have a new location for the relocation of a Head Office of the Library before it sold the property where it is located now. It did not.

Here is what the City's plans are now:

"This location will temporarily house the library when it moves out of its current Ouellette Ave. headquarters next year...

Dilkens, who also chairs the WPL board, had hoped at the time that a permanent central library location would be ready by then so library services would not be interrupted.” (Mark Brown, Blackburnnews, June 25,2018) 

For some strange reason, he did not have such a location at all but nevertheless went through the sale of the existing property. Oh well, that is what was done.

THE POWER OF AMAZON

Do you own any shares in the Amazon stock? I wonder if you should think about doing so when you see a story like this one which suggests how that Company's business will grow in a relatively short period of time in a new frame of business where it sells private-label products:

“On the surface, the move into the private label business (in which goods are sold under the retailer’s name rather than that of an outside vendor) appears to be a deft move by Amazon. Analysts predict that nearly half of all online shopping in the United States will be conducted on Amazon’s platform in the next couple of years. That creates a massive opportunity for Amazon to more than double revenue from its in-house brands to $25 billion in the next four years, according to analysts at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey. That’s the equivalent of all of Macy’s revenue last year...

“Amazon started very slowly in private label,” said Youssef Squali, a managing director of internet and digital media research at SunTrust. “Quite frankly, we think our estimate for the size of the private-label business is conservative,” he added.” (Julie Creswell, New York Times, June 23, 2018) 

That kind of business expansion in such a short period of time is unbelievable. Moreover, it provides an unbelievable risk to many other retailers that could hurt them all financially. It seems that Amazon is that popular with its customers who will shop with them.

Here is why Amazon's business seems to growing so much these days:

"Amazon is utilizing its knowledge of its powerful marketplace machine — from optimizing word-search algorithms to analyzing competitors’ sales data to using its customer-review networks — to steer shoppers toward its in-house brands and away from its competitors, say analysts.”

I would suggest, dear reader, that you go and take a look at that article. It talks quite a bit about how the retail marketing is changing these days and the even more growing power of Amazon in it.

One can wonder if there will be more "Department Store" financial difficulties in that marketplace as Amazon's business seems to grow so large, so quickly.